Ari Goldwag - Pekudei - Counting Toward Unity

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast recorded with hashem's never ending assistance in R Israel 5776 2016 this week's para is par P the par begins chapter 38: 211 Mish these are the countings of the Tabernacle the Mish the Tabernacle of testimony the tent of testimony we'll see what this means soon Al that was counted by Moses the work of the Levites in the hands of the son of Aon the priest so this this as Rashi explains this paraa is going to speak about all of the money all of the coins that were collected how it was spent there's an accounting there's an extensive accounting of what went on how the money how the the CF all of the silver and the gold how it was used so there's a counting there's an enumeration and the verse speaks about a counting of the Tabernacle and it speaks about the Tabernacle as a tent of testimony what is this concept of mish Rashi tells us Mish it is a testimony to the people of Israel that hasem forgave them for the sin of the golden calf because we see that God placed his divine div presence amongst the Jewish people but despite the fact that indeed they had sinned despite the fact that they had severed their relationship from God God came back into a relationship with the Jewish people and he placed the divine presence upon the mishkan the mishkan was the conduit through which the Jewish people would again come into a relationship with God so there's a testimony the mishkon itself the Tabernacle itself testifies to the fact that the Jewish people still have a relationship with God that God has forgiven them it's very interesting I'd like to understand why the T speaks about this verse why does it speak about the counting of the mishan counting of all of the different parts and the pieces and the money and how it was spent Etc and then immediately afterwards it describes the tent the Mishka and the Tabernacle as a place of testimony what is the connection between the concept of counting and the concept of testimony now I'd like to share with you a beautiful Mish which when we read it you know there's a lot of different aspects of this medish but we'll see that all of the different aspects of the medish can be formed and joined into one if we listen carefully I'm using my words carefully if we listen carefully we'll be able to see that the disparate elements that seem to be here are actually part of a great hole the the measure says like this these are the countings of the Tabernacle the Torah uses the word a here we had a discussion last week I believe it was about the word a this or these the Stars these are the names of the people of Israel Etc now there's a new discussion we're going to have about the word a it's very very interesting it says like this m why does it say these are the countings of the Tabernacle and as theph explains generally whenever you have the word these it's saying these as opposed to others it's coming to say that there's something here something in this in these as opposed to something else so why is it saying these are the countings of the mishon the enumeration of the different aspects of the Tabernacle so the me gives us some background it says to us like this the time when the Jewish people received the Torah there was an amazing thing that happened the Jewish people went back to the state of of the first man before the sin just like the first man there was no death for the first man and for his wife the Jewish people at Mount Si they also were in a state of deathlessness where the Mal the angel of death would have no power over them as the verse says the verse refers to the fact that the Ten Commandments were inscribed onto the tablets our sages tell us what is the word Kus which means inscribed what's the deeper depth of what's going on here says the two sages tell us two things that seems to be disparate but we'll actually see that they really represent the same idea Ruda says that the word which means inscribed can also be read Asus which means freedom and there was a freedom the freedom was that there wouldn't be any Gus there wouldn't be any Exile the Jewish people if they had not sinned with the mle with the golden calf they would never have been sent into Exile they would have remained in the land of Israel forever says that what was the freedom the freedom was from the freedom was from the angel of death if they had not sinned with the Mel with the with the golden calf they would never have died how was that and I'm skipping a few lines in the mes but the mes continues and says as a result of the fact that the Jewish people received the Torah they accept it upon themselves they said they said we will do and we will listen which we also need to understand what is the concept here of nma we will do and will listen was the idea of listening but since they said that so Hashem enclothed them with the shine of his Splendor what does that mean what is the shine of God's Splendor he gave them a certain level of godliness which was either that they would never go into Exile some of that represents godliness or that they would never be able to die that's that's clear that's Godly God lives forever as it were what was this clothing that they received says that they received crowns notice it's not one Crown it's crowns it's plural and elsewhere the M says that they received one crown for the word n for the word that they said we will do they received another crown for the word nishma that we will listen so they received two crowns you need to understand the concept of the crown you to understand why they received two crowns says an amazing thing Hashem gave them weapons the name of hasem was written upon this weapon as long as they had this in their hands the angel of death could not control them he couldn't rule over them if the Mal the angel of death would try to come they had their powerful weapons that they would use against him which had God's name in it meaning they were Beyond they were above the Mal they were more powerful than the angel of death mean I how do you know this that which it says after the Jews sinned it says and now take offed your which the explained over there in the verse it's referring to the crowns these very crowns take it down you don't have it anymore you don't have that power you don't have that protection anymore remove the crowns remove you have lost your Weaponry that protects you from the Mal from the angel of death now it's very interesting when we read this verse it refers to this powerful spiritual protections as Ed the root of the word ed is Aid which means a witness why is it that it refers to these crowns or to the weapons that protect them from the Mal as a witness what is the concept of a witness also it's connected clearly to the fact that we refer to the mishon as Mish as the Tabernacle of test Tony what is the idea of testimony how does it connect into the fact that the Jewish people said they received the Torah they said we will do and we will hear and as a result of that they received these Witnesses these these crowns or this weapon which would protect them from the Mal from the angel of death now the meish continues and I'm going to skip a few lines but the me continues and tells us that at the M agel there was something very interesting there was something which paralleled the what happened at the mishkon what happened with the collection of gathering together of all of the gold which mosu which Moses did a similar thing happened at Mel there was a gathering together of gold and it was in a very similar way Mage tells us that they came to to AR and they said to him make us an agel make us a God that will go in front of us because Moses is not around so he said to them okay bring me bring me the gold he said to them take off all of your golden nose rings they brought it they were bringing it and bringing it until Aon said okay that's enough it's very interesting Moses in his in his rebuke of the Jewish people which is in Deuteronomy at the very beginning the first verse it he makes a reference a veiled reference to the gold of the golden calf and speaks of it as that word can also mean enough because they brought so much gold that Aaron had to say to them that's enough now the M tells us a there was a certain young man who came into a place and he saw that they were collecting they were collecting money for for charity and so he said okay give I'll give whatever you want he kept giving them until they said okay that's enough he went a little further on he saw that they were collecting also for some kind of theater for something which wasn't really such a worthy cause and he said there as well to whoever to his servants he said give them money and he kept giving until they said it's enough so you see that it's possible to give and give and give and have that Meda of giving and um sometimes it can be used correctly sometimes it's used incorrectly in the same way the people of Israel they gave gold to the golden calf to the point where they were told that's enough Aaron said you brought too much amazing thing in a parallel way and actually it's going to be an atonement for them the very fact that they had gone and gave endlessly to the golden calf they would atone for that by giving endlessly to the mishan to the point where the those who were collecting for the Tabernacle said that's enough as verse says all that they brought was enough for all of the work that needed to be done there was enough and extra and therefore said let the gold of the Tabernacle Come and Let It atone for the gold of the golden calf now listen to this because it's so beautiful God says the people of Israel when you made the golden calf you caused me to become angry when you said these are your God you spoke about the golden C he said this is your god oh people of Israel now that you have made the Mish I'm going to show you that you have atoned for it you have appeased me with the word Aya the same word that you made a mistake with that you did that sin with it's going to appease me that's why the verse uses the word a it says these are the countings of the mishkon all the countings all the Gatherings all the bringing together of the money that the Jewish people did all of that was an atonement for all of the Gathering that they did to bring together that money for the M agel for the golden calf and now the Mish finishes off with a beautiful statement just so touching also said to the people of Israel in this world meaning in the times of the Mish the times of the Tabernacle the Jewish people so many years ago 3,300 years ago you appeased me with the word a with the Gathering Together of all these parts of the Mish of all parts of the Tabernacle in the future there's going to be a gathering as well an a another time that I'm going to say these I'm going to gather together these sh ver says behold these will come from afar these will come from the north and from the West and these from the the East the verse say who are these that they are flying like a cloud and like the doves into their nest so that's the end of the med but as I was thinking about this medish mulling it over trying to understand what is the theme Here what is the concept here what is the idea of this Gathering what is the word a what is the word these a what is the concept of the counting what is the concept of us like we asked before what is the idea of testimony so one of the things that that I that occurred to me that I thought about is the fact that we have another place very interesting place where we have the word Aid we have the word Aid which means testimony or witness we say sh is they say hear o Israel and again we have the concept of hearing is hear o Israel Our God Hashem is one now if you look look in a safer Torah if you look inside of a Torah scroll the letter I the last letter of the word sh is large and the last letter of the word is a is large so you have an ion and a doll those two letters are large if you put those two letters together you get the word Aid when I say shay when I say hero Israel our God hasem is one I I am witnessing I am saying testimony over the fact that God is one when I fulfill the Torah when I follow the 613 Commandments when I learn Torah when I try to be spiritual I try to bring God into my life and into the world I'm testifying to the fact that there is a God that there is a Transcendent reality I am an aid I'm a witness now what is an aid what is a witness and why is it connected to sha why is it connected to hear you know when we have witnesses we don't see anything we have to put the pieces together we have to hear them and not only that it's very interesting you can't have one Aid there are certain places where a single witness is inde believed but generally speaking you need to have two witnesses one is not enough you need to have two so you need to take the pieces and put them together because there's some information that I'm lacking there's something that I don't see directly and I need to find out what had happened so you have an aid you have a witness who says his opinion he saw what happened I don't know what happened I have two people I put the pieces together if they're testimony jives if they're saying a similar thing they can't say exactly the same thing cuz then we can assume that they have made up some something together but assuming that everything makes sense and everything is proper so we can believe then we can believe that something happened even though I didn't see it directly that's what an aid is that's what a witness is someone helps me see something I don't know directly helps me put together the pieces helps me hear you know he said that the Mish Rashi told us that the idea of the mishkan of the Tabernacle was that it was a testimony to the fact that the Jewish people even though they had fallen from that relationship with Hashem nevertheless they still Hashem took them back there's a an a testimony meaning there was something that we didn't know we don't know it looks like they've done a sin how can they be forgiven but if you put the pieces together you follow the Story from beginning to end there's a testimony the mishkan itself if you look at what's going on it's not absolutely clear but if you look you see that it testifies the fact that hm is Mas places his divine presence on the Jewish people that itself testifies to the fact that there still is a Rel relationship between Hashem and the Jewish people when we speak about a PUD when we speak about all of the countings when I count something I'm trying to get a bigger picture I'm trying to see what has happened if I don't have an accounting for what's happened I don't know what's happened necessarily I might be very vague on it but when we have a Puda when we have an accounting we go through all of the numbers we see how much money came in how much money was spent how much of this gold went to this creation of this particular item how much of the silver went into this there's an accounting we're putting all of the pieces together we're gathering together all of the information that's the pish that's the counting of the Tabernacle now what is the concept of death what is the idea of the malis what does he do what is his power his power is to separate to take apart the body from the soul really the body and the Soul are supposed to be together and they're supposed to stay together forever that's how hasm created adish and that's the state the je Jewish people return to when they reive the Torah when they said nma we will do and we will listen they meant we're going to put together the pieces we are going to be the aen we are going to be the ones who testify that there's a God in the world and so God gave them his clothing as it were what ises that mean he gave them from the shine of his Splendor he enclothed them with these crowns the concept of the crown always is the Transcendent aspect it's that which sits upon the head it's that which brings together all of the despar aspects of the human being and shows that here just like a king includes all of his people and he wears a crown the concept of the crown is the Transcendent aspect the Jewish people would now be that that which testifies to God in the world and so as long as they were testifying to God in the world there would not be any separation between the soul and the body and not only that but what was the other concept there wouldn't be any Exile what happens in Exile when there when there's Exile so the Jewish people leave their proper place instead of being all together as one in the country of Israel land of Israel so they're disparate they're all over the world messia who's the king the Messiah who's the king wears the crown so to speak he's the one who gathers the Jewish people that's his job to gather the Jewish people to AR Isel bring together all of the disparate elements of the Jewish people to bring them out of GES bring them out of the Exile out of the pieces to count them all to bring them all together when the Titus says a these are the countings the word a means these when I the only I can say these when I say the word these it means that it's right in front of me all the pieces have come together and so the there's a mistake that can be made of course also the Jewish people took they did a they they did a gathering of the gold for a negative for for a great sin to create the golden calf that was a great mistake but they were able to be maker for that to atone for that by gathering it once again for what they truly are what they truly are their Essence that Oneness that's the the Servants of Hashem the ones who testify to God's Oneness to God's greatness and it's also not a coincidence that the word a as the Mish finishes off and I'd like to finish off the word a is the word that Hashem uses to remind us that just like then he saw the Aya the Gathering that we did and he forgave us and he brought us back into relationship with him back into Oneness with him that word Aya is also used in the future as God bring back these will come back from from from a distance these will come from the north these will come from the East these will come from the west and these will come they'll be gathered together like birds like doves who are coming back to their nest the Jewish people will return with the word a Hashem will forgive us for all of the distance that we created between ourselves and God for the Exiles that we created that were a result of our sinning our distancing oursel from Hashem are disconnect from spirituality finally finally Hashem will gather together as he has already begun to do as the Jews have already begun to return to be gathered back to Earth Israel so to all of the Jews will return and it will be with the word a and there will be an adus there's no greater testimony to the fact that God still has a relationship for 3,300 years and even more going back to Abraham 3700 years that God has a relationship with the Jewish people and that relationship is forever and it's no there's no greater representation no greater testimony to the fact that Hashem has a relationship with us when he gathers us back and he says a these are coming from the the North and the South from their Exile and when we indeed stand and we we have that testimony we bear witness to the fact that God is one that God is one we are that Aid we hear all the pieces we put all of the pieces together just like when I'm listening when I'm hearing a concept I have to hear one word after another after another after another until all the words come together when we stand there and we testify through our actions through our NASA through our nishma through our actions and through our listening to God when we testify that there is a God that there is one God so then we bring all those pieces together and we return to the land of Israel and just like God testifies about us we testify about him and that's why the verse speaks about the fact that there's a counting of the of all the pieces we' have brought all those pieces together it's a these and it's Mish it's the Tabernacle of testimony should bless all of us that we should all be zish all Merit to be able to hear and to put together all of the pieces and to testify to God's Oneness and we should all Merit to see that day when God testifies and says these are all of the pieces all of the Jewish people returning from Exile may it be soon thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]